This invention relates to a device for supporting musical instruments and to a cover for a musical instrument support.
Guitars and other stringed musical instruments are customarily displayed in retail stores by suspending them from an aperture board system which includes a set of hangers. Each hanger has a lateral base portion and a pair of longitudinal extensions which provide therebetween a space for receiving the neck of the instrument.
Such display hangers are unattractive in some respects and, more significantly, they have regularly resulted in damage to the instruments, causing mars and scars where the metal hanger comes into contact with the instrument.
While I am unaware of any protective coverings used for such musical instrument hangers, I learned after making this invention that protective coverings have been used on devices for engaging the neck of a guitar, such a construction being shown by the DeLano U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,815. I have also learned that protective sleeves of soft material have been used on parallel wire arms of a paint brush hanger as shown by Karst U.S. Pat. No. 2,051,408. These prior devices, while providing a protective or cushioning effect, possess a different structure than the present invention which further possesses an elongated and flexible retaining means such as a strap, wrappable around the lateral base portion of a hanger to retain the device in position and provide a protective covering on the lateral base portion.
The present invention is directed to a protective device for covering a musical instrument hanger which has a lateral base portion and a pair of longitudinal extensions which provide a space for receiving the musical instrument. The device includes at least one tubular body connected to an elongated flexible retaining means. The tubular body covers a longitudinal extension of the hanger and the retaining means wraps around the lateral base portion to retain the tubular body on the longitudinal extension and to provide a protective covering on the lateral base portion. A fastener on the retaining means holds it in wrapped relation on the lateral base portion. When constructed according to the invention, the device is relatively uncomplicated, attractive and serves the very important function of preventing damage to a supported musical instrument.
Preferably, the device is formed of a single sheet of material having an H-shape which includes a pair of parallel legs and a central crosspiece connecting the legs. Each of the legs has a tubular body extending in one direction from the crosspiece and a retaining means extending in the other direction from the crosspiece. The tubular bodies may be formed of portions of the sheet material which are turned and attached to themselves as by stitching.